Social media giant TikTok on Thursday committed to removing all offensive and inappropriate content from its platform following a virtual meeting between President William Ruto and Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew.
In a statement seen by Kenyans.co.ke, President Ruto said the TikTok CEO committed to ensuring that content is moderated to fit community standards.
During the meeting, the CEO also revealed that the company will set up an office in Kenya to coordinate its operations in the continent.
"The move will ensure that content on the platform adheres to agreed guidelines," President Ruto said in the statement.
The development came a few hours after ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo ruled out the possibility of outrightly banning TikTok in the country.
Speaking during an interview on Thursday, the Cabinet Secretary said the government instead is focused on working with the global tech giant to moderate the content and weed out inappropriate material.
"We are not banning TikTok but we have to find a way to manage unpalatable content on the platform," he stated.
The CS explained that TikTok can be a great platform when the company exercises self-regulation pointing out that the only problem with the site is that it promotes explicit and violent content.
He added it was necessary for the Kenyan government to listen to TikTok to enable the two sides to come up with a viable plan to address the concerns raised by Kenyans and ensure content uploaded by Kenyan creatives is monetized.
President Ruto's meeting with the TikTok CEO came one day after the Head of State revealed that he was planning to meet with the social media giant's executives to address two issues; monetization and content issues raised by different stakeholders.
This came a few weeks after a Kenyan presented a petition to Parliament seeking to have the social media platform banned over inappropriate content concerns.
Bob Ndolo, the petitioner argued that the social media platform had been promoting violence, explicit sexual content, hate speech, vulgar language, and offensive behavior among the youth.
